2010-08-23: Blood Monsters? Ick!
Summary: Some young heroes attempt to track down more information about the Aztec gang, only to get far more than they expect Location: Somewhere in New York City Participants: Karolina Dean, Memory, Nomad Rating: PG-13 for Gross Hemorhrage Monsters "Monty Sanchez." Memory says. She's asked the others to meet her on the rooftop of a building next to a Mexican restaurant, "He works as a dishwasher here but he was in footage of an Aztec hit on a jewelry store nearby. His shift ends soon. He'll come out the back door, get into that Ford pick-up there and drive off. I want to ask him a few questions." She looks up at Nomad and Karolina. "Someone reminded me the other night..." She glances to Karolina, "... that I should be more careful. So, you're here in case things go wrong." Nomad hangs back a bit, sitting on small, currently inactie smoke stack as she nods her head. "Alright," she says a bit. "So what, we hang back and if things go a bit lop-sided, you give us the sign to bust in and save your butt?" She's used to playing back-up, so she can deal with that plan, especially after being a bit bruised from her run-in with Monran the Underworlder. She reaches up to pull her goggles down over her eyes, brushing away stray bits of condensation that has collected on the lenses. "And how you gonna let us know if we're needed?" Karolina has shown up today for her 'heroring' bit, this time in something at least starting to resemble some kind of costume. Or the beginings of. A black and gold vest, with matching pants and boots, and bracers. All made out of a rather inexpensive material, looking more like she bought it all at a Halloween Store supersale, or something. She is not, currently, all aglow. That tends to attract attention. "No." Memory says with a small smile. "Here's how I'd like to run it. Starbright goes down and snags him, flies him up here. Then we ask him a few questions. I'd say Nomad or I should grab him but truth be told, K, you're the one who can get him up here the fastest." Nomad blinks a few times. "Oh...that makes a lot more sense, yeah," Nomad admits before looking over towards Karo with a wide grin. "Starbright. We'll have to add that to the list," she says with a slight snicker. Then she hops off her perch as she starts to feel it rumble, a few seconds later steam starting to wift into the air. Oh, great. She's being 'elected', now. "Right," says 'Starbright'. "Got it." She walks over to the edge of the building, "So what does this guy look like? Any clue? Or do I just start grabbing random hispanics, until we get the right one?" Memory pulls a smartphone from her pocket, taps up a picture, and shows off a picture of a morose looking guy with a red streak in his dark hair and a nose that's been broken at least twice. "When he's up here, Nomad, you can make sure he stays down while I ask questions?" Nomad snerks a bit at she nods her head. "Sure sure, holding-goons-down-for-questioning was my minor at superhero university," she jokes, giving a passing glance towards the picture of Sanchez, nodding her own head, calculating how to be subdue someone who is likely to be quite a bit bigger than she. Karolina continues to play lookout, "Okay. Just so everyone knows? Yeah. About the only thing I've ever fought with my hands, besides knocking out my mom? Was probably grease stains in the oven," she half-jokes. Then, exhaling, she flares to life, becoming a brilliant beacon-light in the nightsky. And, waits. Another ten minutes pass before Monty exits, right on time. He's not that big - a head taller than Nomad, though broader in the shoulders. He glances around, then heads straight for his pick-up truck. "There we go." Memory nods. "If you please, K?" While looking over Monty as he exits, Nomad does some quick math and reaches into her utility belt and pulls out a long yardage of rope. She glances to Karo, nods her head and silently mouths 'You can do it!' while she smiles excitedly. Karolina glances briefly to Memory, then nods. "Sure. Here we go." A pause, exhale, and she takes off, a brilliant contrail of energy and light, swooping down low. Her intention is to snatch Monty like a person might a cat, grab him behind and lift him up by the scruff of his shirt collar. Should this prove successfull, she turns 'round, and zips back up to the top of the building as fast as she can, to dump Monty unceremoniously in front of the other two girls. "What the he..." Monty manages to get those words out before the shining star of the team grabs him, yanks him into the air, drops him on the roof. Memory just smiles and gives Karolina a nods. "Good work. Nomad?" Monty lands flat on his stomach but he's starting to get up, already recovering from the shock of being flown through the air with the greatest of ease. Before even given the word, Nomad is on the move, approaching monty from behind. Taking his off-balance posture as he tries to stand as an advantage to plant her foot in the center of his back, bringing the rope down. Her hope is to get on top of him fast enough to hog-tie him, a skill she's perfect to get done quickly, especially for targest recovering from shock. Hey! She did it! Or, something. She hovers above Monty, attempting to appear intimidating. Or, something. Glower!Glower! Everything goes according to plan. Monty's tied up and unable to bring his weight to bear. Memory begins the questioning, speaking rapidly in Spanish and listening to answers. They go back and forth for about fifteen minutes. Occasionally, Monty struggles and attempts to break free but with Nomad and Karolina's glower power nearby? He doesn't stand a chance. Finally, Memory's lips curl into a smile. She asks something in Spanish. Monty begins to respond and then twitches. Twitches. Coughs. Twitches. Coughs again. Coughs a third time and this time blood spits up. Not a little blood. It gushes. Memory scrambles backwards to get out of the way as the blood pours from Monty's mouth. Some sorts of gold pictograms glow beneath his skin on the back of his neck. After getting her hogtie down in record time, Nomad steps back and grins to Karo, offerimg her knuckles for a celebrator bump, only to put it back down, not sure if she's going to get a sunburn or what. Then the target start spitting up blood. "Whoa...whoawhoawhoa, Mem, what the hell is going on?" The coughing up of the blood causes Karolina some serious concern as well, "We need to get him to a hospital! Before - ...," yeah. She's already suspecting that THIS guy is going ot die, and they get pegged. "We should've never done this," she begins, shaking her head. "I don't know." Memory stays remarkably calm. Panic? That's shunted to her fifth brain process. "The glowing symbols... those are Aztec pictograms." She doesn't try to start CPR. The amount of blood pouring out, there's no way he's going to survive. "Some sort of spell? I... I.... oh crap." The puddle of blood isn't content to remain a puddle of blood. Instead, it rises and twists, like some sort of insane children's play clay. It oozes and shifts until it has taken a new form. A red, winged serpent. "Oh crap, ohcrapohcrapohcrap," says Karolina. She SO knew this was a bad idea. Then, the evil serpent magic thingy starts to erupt out of the blood. That only freaks her out more, and she lets out a few blasts of her energy right into the serpent. Nomad blinks as the blood starts to form into a seperate form. "Okay, rookies," she says under her breathe as she pulls out a few discs. "This is what we call Defcon Holy Shit, Its A Monster." With that, she's on the move, tossing a pair of throwing discs at the blood serpent and seeing if they fly through, bounce off or get stuck in the middle. "I am so sick of things going wrong." Memory mutters to herself. She sets not one but two mental processes to comb through every scrap of information she has on the Aztecs. Then? She leaps out of the way just as the Blood Serpent strikes, managing to avoid its gaping maw. Nomad's discs take option number three. They neither fly through or bounce but instead are stuck in the center, like the grape in the middle of a block of gelatin. Karolina's light blasts slice through the beast but it quickly reforms like a certain malleable assassin droid from the future. "Ewwwww! That is -SO- gross!" Protests Karolina, with a classic 'EW' face. She slams a small, centered forcefield around the creature. "Get rid of it," she protests to Memory. She's pretty sure Memory summoned it. "I -so- wish Nico was here, right now." What she wouldn't give for a good (and sexy) mage to dispell this thing. With her discs going straight through the thing, Memory is out of ideas. Her whole gimmick is punching and hitting things. Thus she holds her ground and simply watches what happens, popping her blue energy shield and backing up slowly. "I'm not a magicia...!" Memory begins to shout back at Karolina when her third mental process comes up with soemthing that might be a solution. "... right! Umm.... cover me!" Memory drops to her knees, yanks off her glove with her teeth, and fumbles in her pocket for something. Meanwhile, the Blood Serpent pounds against the force bubble, intent on breaking through... and strong enough that cracks begin to appear.... "Not for long," Karolina warns, straining. She's not as strong as her race is capable of - not yet. She doesn't have the natural training and understanding that most of her race has, having been forced to discover all of it on her own, mostly. "You'd better hurry." The energy continues to flow and pour out of her, trying to stabilize the forcefield. Looking over towards Karo, Nomad scowls and jet back in the direction of her roomie. Duckind down, she puts the shield up again as she kneels in front of them. "Okay, Mem, I think I got us protected, but if you're going to do anything, do it now. Didn't come with my 'How To Stop Blood Monsters' kit." Memory yanks a utility knife from her pocket and yanks the blade out with her teeth. Then she slashes across her palm. Dipping the index finger of her still gloved, non-sliced hand in the blood, Memory begins the process of drawing pictograms on the rooftop. She begins mumbling in what she hopes is passable Aztec. The Blood Serpent slams into the bubble one more time and breaks through, the field shattered. It immediately swarms towards Memory, seeking to end her existence. Karolina aims her fingers at the creature, and attempts to 'fry' it with a concentrated laser beam of focused solar radiation, "Hurry!" She shouts, desperately. The monster clearly has very bad plans or Mem. Looking down at her own arm, Nomad open and closes the shield a few times before she runs at the blood monster. "ThisisgoingtohurtI'msuchanidiot," she mutters to herself but jamming her arm in the blood-beast sideways and poppping and closing the shield rapidly and repeatedly. The core idea is to spread out the blood at thinly as possible; the problem is Rikki isn't sure WHAT is going to happen when she sticks her arm in there. The nice thing about her powers? Memory can't be distracted. One of her minds stays firmly focused on the ritual while another pays attention to her imending demise. She continues to chant and draw in her own blood. The Blood Serpent literally boils, the surface of it bubbling and popping as Karolina's energy strikes heat it up. Nomad's strike pushes it back. The beast's form doesn't spread apart the way Rikki planned but it seems... confused by her tactics as it is repeatedly assaulted from within. The good news? It isn't acidic. The bad news? Karolina's made it a touch hot in there... "Ah, hothothot!" Nomad squeels, backing away. She looks down and gasps as her shield generator is fried. "Well hell," she growls before looking up at the blood monster, hoping that he helpless shield technique draw enough agro to give Mem time to finish her Aztec magic mojo. "Hey, Mr. Hemoglobin," she taunts, tossing a few more discs intot he sticky abyss. "You think you scare me?" "Huuuuurrrryyyyyy," calls Karolina, quickly, "Are you okay, Nomad?!" Desperate. She does not like it when things get out of hand, like this. It's much better to -plan- stuff like this out. Two last words, one last pictogram... and then spell is complete. The Blood Serpent continues to boil. "K! Pour it on!" Memory shouts. Nomad pouts at her broken toy before glaring at Karo...professionally. "I'm fine, fry this sucker to oblivion!" 'Lightshow', or 'Starbright', or, whatever you want to call her, continues to pour on a rather intensely heated laser onto Snakey Blood Monster Queztcoatal, ... hot enough that the roof around it starts to heat up, too, and might soon melt through. The Blood Serpent twists and boils, red smoke pouring up in curls from its body. It grows smaller and smaller and smaller until, finally, it is gone... Memory closes her eyes and breathes out, "... good job." She whispers. Nomad grins widely, turning to face Karo. "Girl, you totally just saved the day! Wasn't that basically the best?" She would hug her roomie in pride, but the arms of her jacket are whoa-hot right now. Karolina is too busy just - not beleiving they just had that happen. Then, she looks to Monty, "Ohmigod, he's dead," she swears. "Crap. We need to get out of here, now!" She insists. Celebrations can come later. She does /not/ need another murder pinned on her. That's for sure. "Stupid." Memory growls. She slides her glove back on, then draws out a small bottle. She begins pouring the contents of the bottle (bleach) onto the pictograms she drew with her own blood. "Stupid. I should have known. I knew they might have magicians. They've rigged their people with traps. If they're about to betray the group the spell activates and makes something to destroy the questioner... K... thank you." She looks up at Karolina. "You're my guardian angel at this point. You keep saving me." Nomad nods her head enthusiastically at Karo's enthusiasm about leaving. "Yeah, I doubt that Captain America will let me move in with him..." she pauses, glancing towards Karo slowly and breaking a small grin. "Um...I mean..." she starts, and then decides to just move to the edge of the roof, looking for the best place to jump away to. Looking back to Memory, Karolina half-smiles, "At least I can help save someone. As for you? Well. Keep safe. And get outta here. Me and Nomad gotta get outta here. Like, yesterday." Nomad's comment about Captain America causes Karolina to blink once, twice. What?! She gives Memory an apologetic look, and moves to dive after her friend - and at least current roomate. If she doesn't move. "You both have to go." Memory rises to her feet. "I need to talk to the cops. Explain what happened. I'll leave you both out of it... but me being a detective in this town means I need a good working relationship with the cops. Don't worry. I have a contact in the PD. Been building up currency with him. Nomad. Angel... thanks." From the edge of the building, Nomad turns and gives Memory a short, snappy salute. "Good luck with the fuzz, but yeah, not mentioning us would be keen," she says, before looking to Karolina with a sheepish grin. "So...we might need to talk," she says before leaping off the building. She doesn't seem to have enough room to the next building over, but that's if you're thinking two-dimensionally; twisting her body, she sticks her feet onto the side of the building and jets upwards along the side before hopping up top. Zipping across the rooftops, low, Karolina flies as her friend uses pure athletics and training to maintain moving across the same. "So I gathered," she says, sounding both fearful of what just happened, and sullen that she might lose one of her only friends. "I'm sorry!" Memory calls out. "Great job, Monroe." She mutters to herself. "Ruin your friendships before they even start." She pulls a cellphone from her pocket and taps a few buttons. She holds the cell up to her ear, "Detective? This is Memory. I have a body." Category:Logs